There doesn’t seem to be much more to say about the tragedy that took place at Virginia Tech earlier this week. It was a huge shock, but the way the students there have handled it, at least from what I’ve seen on TV, has been impressive and inspirational. I’m proud to be an honorary member of the Hokie Nation, even if only for a day. And I’m thankful that my second cousin, Michael White, a Tech student, was not on campus that day.
…here’s something fun 
Someone on my Web design mailing list sent this:
Are you a Yankee or a Southerner? Try the http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/yankeetest.html”>Yankee test.
Since I grew up in Michigan, but have lived in Virginia lo these many years, my score is about right, I think: 44% Dixie, bordering on Yankee.
What’s yours?
This month has been really crazy busy. This is the first weekend we’ve both been home with really nothing pressing to do. The first week (and two weekends), we were in Michigan, visiting family and friends. The second weekend, I took a trip to Colorado with a friend to visit another friend. And last weekend, our exchange student from two years ago and her family came to visit for several days.
I’m working on getting pix up of all this … soon, I promise
I’d heard about this before, on my Web design mailing list, but I was still a little surprised at how much comment spam I’ve been receiving through this blog. I just installed Akismet to block it, and in 10 minutes or so, it’s caught 175 spam messages and only missed three. Very cool
I’ve been finding dozens of spam messages advertising all kinds of crap every time I checked my email, to the point that I did not want to check email, so I’m glad to finally find this plug-in to help stop it.
I got a Ford Escape Hybrid in February - just in time to help with these insanely high gas prices. Actually, I believe gas prices are too low and gas taxes could be raised to help pay for public transportation, but that’s another topic 
I really love this vehicle. It’s fun to drive, I can see the road better, since I’m at the same height as most other vehicles on the road, and I love the mileage So far, it looks like I’m getting around 34 mpg. My commute to work is mostly stop-and-go traffic up to and through a tunnel, where three lanes of traffic funnel down to one through the tunnel. Then it’s city driving for about 3 miles to the office. So it’s perfect for this car. I used to fill up every week or so. Now it’s every 2-3 weeks Love it.
I also got a new license plate to go with my new ride. I have to give Donna, the graphic designer in my office, credit for part of the idea - her plate says DES9R, and I took the 9 to do mine btw, I also designed the license plate holder, as a fundraiser item for the local League of Women Voters. Cool, eh?
I went with Dan and some friends to an herb sale recently, at the Fred Heutte Center in Norfolk. There were lots of booths of garden-related stuff to buy (as if I need more stuff), and I came across these women selling this gorgeous jewelry: Moonrise Jewelry.
They have necklaces made with real orchids encased in resin and buy their supplies the Fair Trade way. Very cool. I haven’t bought anything yet, but my birthday is coming up (hint, hint) …
I re-found NBC reporter Richard Engel’s blog from Iraq: http://baghdadblog.msnbc.com/ Pretty good stuff.
Her selfishness in asking to be included on the Olympic figure skating team despite not being able to compete for much of last year due to an injury is inexcusable. She’s had two shots at the Olympics and has two medals - she should have been satisfied with that and let Emily Hughes, who earned a spot on the team, march in the opening ceremonies.
She could have left a more positive legacy by gracefully recognizing that she was past her prime and it was time to let the next generation take over. Michelle, sorry, but it’s past time for you to go.
I got a new PC last Saturday. One reason why I haven’t been blogging as much as I’d like to is that my PC was giving me fits - the wireless Internet connection we have wouldn’t work and I could not figure out the problem. We were going to buy me a new PC next month, but I figured that getting it sooner would fix the problem sooner. Right now, I can connect through the wireless router, but Dan can’t with his laptop, except through a cable. We’ll work on that next.
In the meantime, I have lots to catch up on. I’m taking a new class at ODU - Media Law and Ethics. It’s shaping up to be a very interesting class. We have to answer an ethical question each week. Last week’s question was: Are press and speech freedoms under siege in contemporary America?
I’ll post my answer later. What’s yours?
blogging stuff In the meantime, I came across this interesting site that I want to keep track of: The Food Timeline, which lists when foods were adopted by people: